More specifically, as also disclosed in said application, this invention also contemplates use of storage provided on internet websites serving as the storage medium and containing pre-stored supplemental pictorial and other material, with the desired website and portions thereof being automatically computer-accessed by the book reader in direct response to the scanning of a specific book portion barcode; for example, for enabling automatic viewing of the related supplemental pictorial material stored on a selected portion or section of the selected web display, and all in automatic and direct response just to the reader's scanning or activating of the selected barcode in the book and the transmitting of the code scan signals as instructions to the computer.
The present invention is not, of course, the first proposal to use barcode technology in cooperation with computer or microprocessor operations or internet websites. In connection with the general area of prior art technologies for accessing select web displays, for example, ornamental barcodes or symbols have been proposed for indicating a link to a product and a remote location on the web network, as in U.S. Pat. No. 6,708,208. The ornamental symbol created by the dark and light bars of the code serves the function of directing a web browser application of a computer to retrieve and display information in conjunction with such unique barcode ornamentation pattern. In further U.S. Pat. No. 6,098,106, other guiding techniques to a personalized web page are described, as by a television signal for triggering a computer browser response; or by the inputting of an audio tone into the computer to control a web browser software application.
Further on the subject of prior art techniques for accessing of a remote location such as a web with the aid of the scanning of an optical code, reference is also made to U.S. Pat. No. 6,745,234. In this proposal, a first computer disposed on the network connects to a scanner for scanning the optical code of a product by a user. The scanner is uniquely identified with a scanner distributor by a scanner identification number. A second computer server disposed on the network is accessed in response to the user scanning the optical code with the scanner, wherein a lookup operation is performed at the second computer to match the scanner identification number with the scanner distributor to obtain remote routing information of the one or remote locations. The remote routing information, in turn, is returned from the second computer to the first computer in order to access the one or more remote locations disposed on the network. Such remote locations are then accessed to return remote information to the first computer for presentation. In both this U.S. Pat. No. 6,745,234 and in previously mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 6,708,208, moreover, a copious list of prior US and foreign patents and publication references in his general field has been provided, a review of which indicates that the above-cited patents are probably quite representative of the most relevant types of prior art approaches by others in this field and to prior types of uses of barcode technology with computers; but such are hardly anticipatory of the new technological concepts and novel results flowing therefrom underlying the present invention.
Those concepts underlying the present invention, indeed, unlike such prior art barcode design and usage, employ the digital code sequence content of the selected barcode itself (corresponding to a reader-selected portion of the book), not only to identify the selected corresponding pre-stored supplemental pictorial or other supplemental material portion in memory—i.e. the corresponding track or portion or section of the memory storage—but also contain instruction information for effecting the direct and automatic accessing and playing on the computer, TV or other player or display screen that is within view of the reader during the book reading.
Examples presented in said co-pending application, include storage media in the form of                (1) separate CD or DVD memory storage disks or tapes with coded tracks corresponding to the respective book barcodes and players associated with a computer or TV screen display or the like that the barcode scanning signals transmitted to the computer set into automatic accessing and playing operation;        (2) software and computer memory implementation or simulation of such CD or DVD media storage and playing; or        (3) the use of web page storage accessible on the internet.        
In case (1) of the CD, DVD or similar disk or tape player, a separate CD or DVD memory disk player is associated with a computer or TV display screen or the like, and the supplemental pictorial or other material pre-recorded on the respective coded tracks or portions of the storage disk, corresponding to the respective barcodes in the book, are automatically selected and instructions for executing the playing on the screen are transmitted by the reader scanning of the special barcode in the book, as with the aid of an appropriate scanning or activating barcode reader and remote wand for transmitting the scanned signals and the instruction information they represent to the computer, player, TV, etc.
In the computer software implementation (2), above, the memory and operation of a separate CD or DVD and player is simulated in the computer. The transmission of the reader-selected and scanned barcode digit sequence signal instructions are received at the computer and directly correlated with the pre-recorded corresponding track codes of the CD, DVD, etc., with the barcode digits also providing instruction information for the playing of the selected supplemental pictorial material, all directly in response to the digit information represented in the barcode code content that automatically effects play and display on the screen.
As before stated, however, the present invention is primarily directed to case (3), above; i.e. the use of material stored in the web as the supplemental pictorial or other material to be accessed by the book reader. The primary interest of the present invention, indeed, is in a vastly different and novel usage of the barcode and the particular kind of digital sequence content information for the purposes of the invention, and also in a highly novel computer direct operational response to the barcode scan signals themselves as received at the computer from the reader scanning and transmitting the scanned signals to the computer.
Additionally to providing significantly new results and automatic reader access to web-stored supplemental pictorial and other materials, the present invention more broadly greatly simplifies prior art systems for accessing internet web pages generally, and opens up a new area for direct barcode (or similar) automatic selection and execution of computer applications—remotely or locally—without the necessity for present-day computer operator intervention to reach a website and specific portions thereof; and, in the specific case of web portal access, without requiring the manual steps of the current-day computer operator. Further, for access to web portal selected portions intended only for subscribers or special groups, a significantly improved and simple technique therefor, as well.
A particular application of important interest, is to facilitate a magazine reader's automatic access to the magazine web page for information/news up-dating, or to an advertiser's web page, through the novel barcode (or similar) preparation and usage of the invention in the magazine, and the automatic access directly to the exact supplemental up-dating material on the web page under the control of the reader's scan of the barcode—automatic accessing directly to the desired up-dating portion of the web page without need for the presence or intervention of a computer operator or the computer accessing steps presently required—and further with automatic security for subscribers or special groups only accessing selected portions of the web pages.
Common, however, to all the various possible supplemental pictorial and other material storage media (1), (2) and (3) above is their reader-accessing in response to the receipt of scanned barcode indicia (or similar) technology designs containing not only digital representations identifying the coded information selection,—i.e. on the corresponding track portion of the memory disk or tape, or in the corresponding computer memory portion, or on corresponding internet website portion—but also representations corresponding to operational instructions for executing the respective selection, initiation and running of the respective programs or procedures to cause the playing or displaying of the selected stored supplemental pictorial or other material, automatically upon the screen of a computer (laptop) or TV or similar such display within the reader's view.
And in the particular case of the primary thrusts of the present invention involving the reader directly barcode-accessing specific internet websites or portions stored thereon, the novel barcode usage of the invention automatically causing the computer to select and follow application execution instructions corresponding to the barcode encoded digit and sequence representations, as directly translated therefrom upon receipt of the reader's scan signals at the publication, transmitted to the computer—accessing the website directly and automatically and all without human intervention.
Again it should be noted that the invention thus radically differs from present-day internet website storage—accessing, and is distinctly different from prior system usage of barcodes and the like in connection with both computers and web-site accessing, such as, for example, the before-mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 6,745,234. In the latter system, for example, the scan of a mere customary digit barcode is received at a computer and is immediately transferred to a separate server out on the internet. When such a conventional barcode scan is received, the computer doesn't do anything except send it off to a third-party code server. That server has a large list of all the different barcodes out there that can be scanned, and merely performs cross-referencing to a list of websites in the barcode server; and, having found the appropriate website, sends information from the server to open up a web browser, with the server selecting the website to be opened up.
In accordance with the decidedly different approach of the present invention, on the other hand, no third-party barcode server is ever required. This invention makes novel use, rather, of specifically encoded digits and sequences that preferably digitally represent an instruction set of computer operating steps. Upon receipt of the reader-selected and scanned barcode signals transmitted by the wand (or otherwise) to the computer, a special application provided at the computer translates these digital representations directly into a series of corresponding computer-understandable and executable instructions. These instructions are then directly thereupon executed by the computer—for example, open a web browser and go to this particular page or portion on this particular website—and automatically, without any human intervention or steps at the computer, enabling the reader to see that particular page of the particular website thus brought up on the computer screen.
The mere listing of an internet web page in a publication requires that the reader must enter the symbols on a computer search, and then follow the usual computer routine steps to bring up the web page.
Those steps are                1. open a web browser (Internet Explorer, for example);        2. type in URL of the magazine website to get to the portal page (www.Newsweek.com);        3. using the mouse, scroll down the portal page to locate desired story or subject matter portion; and        4. click on that selected portion to bring story to the screen.        
As before shown, the invention and its novel type of and use of special barcode technology obviates all these operator steps that the whole world, presently, has to use.
If a portion of the website is to be reserved for publication subscribers or special customers, as earlier mentioned, with the public to be denied access thereto, current practice requires the computer user to type in the subscriber's name and password in order to permit access to the selected subscriber or special customer materials. With the invention, on the other hand, a subscriber or special customer digit(s) may be simply placed in the barcode and can automatically provided such access with security to the targeted desired group only.
And if the publisher or advertiser wants information back from the reader, a special digit(s) in the barcode can be reserved for such purpose, with the reader registering a response or reply by the scan, as for taking an opinion poll or for other tabulation at the computer, as later discussed in connection with FIG. 2 of the drawings. A second barcode scan can also distinguish negative and positive responses, if desired, or multiple barcodes can be provided, or partial and complete barcode scans can provide for different responses.
The invention, furthermore, is even more remote from other types of prior uses of barcodes as for inventory comparison and related product accessing information, and for store checkout printing or other billing and/or inventory tracking. It has also been proposed, as in U.S. Pat. No. 6,760,884, to organize photographs with or without commentary, on the website, as by associating each photograph (or other physical object) with a specific barcode. This is intended to aid an author in organizing photos to generate a story about them and make the story accessible on a website.